UN: A Parody On Libya?

Despite the fact that Colonel Gadaffi’s dictatorship has been in power for 41 years it was allowed to chair an important UN committee on human rights.

But now, as he’s been murdering Libyans in the street for weeks, the UN has finally decided enough was enough, according to AP:

“GENEVA — The UN Human Rights Council unanimously called Friday for Libya to be suspended from the body and for a probe into violations by the regime, in a dramatic session which witnessed the defection of Tripoli’s envoy.
In a resolution adopted by consensus, the 47 member UN body decided to “urgently dispatch an independent, international commission of inquiry… to investigate all alleged violations of international human rights law in Libya.”

It also “recommends to the United Nations General Assembly, in view of the gross and systematic violations of human rights by the Libyan authorities,” to consider suspending the country from the Human Rights Council.

Libya was elected in May 2010 to the council after obtaining 155 votes in a secret ballot from the 192-state General Assembly.”

However, that doesn’t answer the questions:

1. How did Libya, with a positively appalling human rights record, ever get to chair the UN committee on human rights, in the first place ?

3. Why did the UN find out about Libya’s atrocious human-rights record only **recently**, and not decades ago?

Update 1: I should add that Libya was voted into the chair of the previous UN body on human right’s too, the Beeb has more:

“Libya has been elected chairman of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, despite opposition from the United States.
In a secret ballot, Libyan Ambassador Najat Al-Hajjaji was backed by 33 members, with three countries voting against and 17 members abstaining.

Human rights groups have been protesting at Libya assuming the chairmanship.

The job of the Commission, the UN’s main human rights watchdog, is to receive complaints about abuses, but it has been widely condemned as toothless.
…
Seif Gaddafi said “We have a better human rights record than our neighbours. Sure, we are not Switzerland or Denmark; we are part of the Third World and part of the Middle East. But we are better than our neighbours”. “

Libya getting booted from the UNHRC was the saddest thing I ever heard. The world’s civilized people should have laughed that clown shop out of existance decades ago. I’m afraid we’re a tiny minority, though.